Total War: Warhammer 3 – cast list hints at Naryska Leysa as next Legendary Hero for Kislev and a Tigermen unit
The cast list for Total War: Warhammer 3 on imdb has been updated with two brand-new voice actors, potentially giving us a hint at what we can next expect from the strategy game in terms of content. Avital Lvova, who has some TV roles as well as a dubbing role in Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty under her belt, is listed as playing Naryska Leysa, while Nilly Cetin, a stuntwoman who has previously been featured as a voice actress in Lords of the Fallen and Age of Empires 4, is credited with playing Tigermen.
Naryska Leysa is one of the few Kislevite characters aside from the already playable ones that we know a few things about thanks to bits and pieces conveyed to us through the game’s lore. She is a character created by Creative Assembly rather than Games Workshop and is currently the Golden Knight of Kislev, making her a prime candidate to be a Legendary Hero.
“The Golden Knight is the champion of the Tzarina. This is an honorary rank bestowed to the greatest warrior among the Druzhina, or occasionally in history, Boyars or even the common soldiery. Every Golden Knight is awarded a freshly-forged suit of immaculate and, oft-rumored, enchanted armor. The current Golden Knight is Naryska Leysa, the daughter of the previous champion, and said to be an even greater fighter than her father,” a loading screen in the game informs us about the character.
Another hint about the Golden Knight is provided on a piece of concept art for the game showing different horses for Kislevite characters and units. One of them is wearing a golden version of the Ice Court’s mount armor and “Golden Knight” can be read below the depiction of the animal.
Players have been fairly certain that Naryska Leysa would be coming to the game at some point due to this loading screen and the concept art, and her showing up on the cast list seems to be confirmation of that. She’d be the second Legendary Hero for Kislev after Ulrika Magdova, who can be recruited for Kislev as well as the Empire.
Intriguing is the mention of Tigermen on the list. This race is associated with the south of Cathay, where it borders on the Kingdoms of Ind, where Tigermen are said to be relatively prominent. A town called Village of the Tigermen exists in Cathay on the Total War: Warhammer 3 map, so it’s quite possible that they serve in the armed forces of this faction. That’s interesting in itself, since they’ve previously been depicted as more akin to Beastmen, in effect wild and barbaric creatures prone to serving Chaos. It’s possible that Creative Assembly is fleshing them out a bit more – or that our old knowledge of them, which is largely conveyed through rumors heard from imperial travelers, is simply wrong.
While the Kingdoms of Ind may be a potential DLC candidate in the future, it’s unlikely that they are on the menu at the moment, so I’d say the chances are good that these Tigermen will show up in a Cathayan context. Players were expecting them to be part of a potential Fire Dragon vs. Monkey King DLC, which would make sense from a lore-perspective.
Which, of course, begs the question of when The Golden Knight and the Tigermen will make their way into the game. One possibility is that they are part of the free update to Shadows of Change, which Creative Assembly promised to bring the expansion’s content value up to par with its price. It focused on Cathay, Kislev, and Tzeentch, so it could reasonably house both hinted-at units. They make much less sense for Thrones of Decay, the next DLC, which is centered on the Empire, Nurgle, and Dwarfs.
For now, anything more would be pure speculation, so we’ll keep an eye on developments – as a reminder, none of this has been officially confirmed yet.